Potatoes have been a staple for Centuries.
And with good reason! They're dead simple and, unlike some crops, they have weight, easily filling your belly. Plus, they're good in almost everything!
We have tried to grow potatoes a few times..
Last year we stuck them everywhere we could find the space to.
We had high hopes, but while we got potatoes out if it, I think we burned more calories trying to dig them up then they held!
The dirt was rock hard and what potatoes we did recover were more often then not damaged in some way from the struggle it took to extract them..
SO..
This year I tried something different..
Potato Towers!!.... and one re purposed, rusted out wheel-barrow..
at the time of me writing this, we had not yet attempted to harvest any of them. I have some excitement, true, but the kind you get when opening a Dirty Santa gift a Christmas.. It may be awesome! But it also may not.. whether we fail or succeed, I'll share the results.
All the wood used was scrap. There was some slight cost in screws, staples, and plastic (unscented trash bags.)
But the main and staggering cost came from the dirt!
I'm not interested in robbing Peter to pay Paul, and while the thought of collecting dirt here and there on the homestead sounded great, it was short lived. We need to be building our soil. Bringing in as much here as we can. So i payed for the dirt, a combination of topsoil, peat moss, and some manure. And it wasn't cheap!!
I was able to justify this only because were going to add the soil left after harvesting into the new garden, by the house, that we will be working on this fall/winter. So even though I wanted to get it for less, we're at least going to be putting it all to good use.
We did not go with the vine type potato tower idea where you plant a few at the bottom and bury the same plant over and over.
Instead we did layers of potatoes, adding soil to them occasionally.
So where did we get the potatoes??
Most were given to us by my my sister-in-law who found them at our local transfer station (trash place.) But some were, and usually are, just plain ole' potatoes that have been forgotten.. We do not buy seed potatoes.
Even the ones she brought us this year were just some old lady's potatoes that had gotten really old and grown long shoots.
So here we go!
All in all, I think the system is sound. The potatoes we did get were easy to collect!
Four screws and we were in! It looks like the white potatoes did poorly... And by poorly I mean diddly squat! Just because they have eyes, doesn't mean that they will grow.. But they were free and we still have all the dirt. And the towers are in good enough shape to use for another two years at least! As such, there was no money lost in the venture!
What's more, all these red potatoes came from but 4 or less "seed" potatoes... AKA what was left in a bag we bought last year. Next year we will get some more potatoes from our local Go-Grocery store. They seemed to do very well last year.
Even though the results were a little disappointing.. I'm not upset..
I'm glad for any lesson learned. At our next homestead we may be much more reliant on these than we are now.
At our next place we will probably be much more off grid and have needs greater then here so I want to learn all these lessons here while I can.
Cant wait to try it all again next year!
Stay tuned for the rest of our tower harvests...
-'The Digger'
Hello there!
Thanks for sharing your potato harvest!
I recently harvested 2 plants that I had. I did a post and a video about the one plant which had formed potatoes above the ground- https://steemit.com/nature/@moderndragon/potato-forming-above-ground
Still need to do a post about it's harvest.
My experience with potatoes and sweet potatoes is that if they have a big tuber feeding the plant they're less likely to make lots of babies. Its like they have their reserve and they're not bothered to produce. Whereas if you're growing from rooted shoots or cuttings the plant has to work harder to make it survive and will then actually make potatoes. They are also heavy feeders (good call on bringing in soil) and love loose soil, but you can use sweet potatoes to break up hard soil. Those guys just grow where they want to!
When I wanted to plant potatoes for the first time earlier this year I watched a couple of videos and found a guy who planted potatoes in seaweed and leaves.( His dogs keep stealing his potatoes while he does the videos :) His channel is called 'Home Grown Veg' on Youtube. He tests all kinds of growing mediums and is worth having a look at.
His most recent video was on potatoes grown in forest bark and wood chips.
My brother-in-law @zalife had some potato skins that had gone to the compost heap start growing. You just never know what's going to take :)
Best of luck with your next harvest!
Lizelle
Thank you! Ill have a look! Hope to get this hammered out next year.. We just got into sun chokes so see how they compare.
That looks like an interesting channel! We also got potatoes out of our compost this year and have another couple plants growing right now!
We grow potatoes in burlap sacks because our land is very hard. So far so good. A decent crop this year.
That might a possibility for us... Hmm.. Don't know about burlap but we have tons of feed bags!..
Feed bags work too. Just fill them about half way and roll down the sides to help support the weight.
We will use these towers till they rot but are always looking for more uses for the feed sacks! However, there is room enough out here to use both!
Hello everyone, here everyone sows the whole potato ?? Here in my zone a potato gives several plants, is made a cut or several according to the amount of "eyes" that the potato has, each piece only grows a plant and not several as when planting a whole potato, usually give potatoes well Bigger than the ones I saw in the photos. The cuts made are as in this example.
Photo source: http://chc.org.br/fruta-verdura-ou-legume/
Good photo! we usually do but was swimming in potatoes this year (unproductive ones).. im going to try this next year! Thank you
Hope you get a bigger harvest next year. I grow potatos too. My experience with the red Icelandic ones is that they are smaller and grow slower then for example "Premium" or the yellow bigger once I get in Iceland called "Helga". Maybe it´s the same with your red once? I´m experimenting with two different types as well now from Holland. Looking forward to harvest but I wont be doing that here until end of August or beginning of September. Then the leftover potatos from the house grow from the compost heap we have in the garden and I always get potato grasses coming up from the salad bed as I put compost on the vegetable beds. So much fun growing potatos and trying different methods :D
Thank you! So do we! We wouldn't have used toe white ones if they were not free, but it happens. Would love to see your harvest when it comes in!
Thank you for this post, my husband and I were just talking about how we wanted to do potatoes next. This is the winner!
The system is wonderful! The potatoes we used were not.. But better to know this year then next!
Potatoe Tower :p nice idea
I am glad to hear you did not attempt the bury the same plant over and over again method! Apparently that is actually a myth. The vast majority of potato varieties are determinate and will not produce anything off the 'stalks' So burying it just means you have to dig REALLY far to get your potatoes!! Hope you have better luck next year!!
Thank you! I looked at the other tower and the wheelbarrow and they had died back some time ago but are now growing again.. Think im going to let these go for a while.. Not counting on much though as they were planted with the same non producing potatoes but who knows!
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STOPI love that you gave the forgotten potatoes a new lease of life. I hope your next crop does much better for you <3
Thank you! Us as well ;)